This invention relates to acoustic transducers and more particularly to an acousto-optical transducer which uses a laser beam incident upon a pair of parallel mirrors which move under the influence of acoustic pressure waves in a medium such as water.
Conventional sound sensing devices comprise piezo-electric transducers. They include piezo-electric crystals which when subjected to variations in pressure resulting from an acoustic pressure wave, generated electrical signals which can be processed using electronic devices. However, their use in thin line arrays impose many difficulties such as the use of electronic devices associated therewith. The electronic devices used for each of the transducers forming a line array are distributed along the line and require power for their operation. Furthermore, there is a limit in reduction in size and weight of thin line arrays using piezo-electric transducers. Consequently, the operational reliability of the line arrays depends upon electronic devices used in addition to other factors involved. It is thus desirable to use transducers which do not require any associated electronics and thus eliminating any electric power needed to drive such electronic devices. This improves the operation reliability of thin arrays. Furthermore, it is desirable to have thinner and lighter thin line arrays which are possible to construct and which have improved self-noise performance and are less expensive.